Gangs Move In on 'Nice' Neighborhoods : Crime: A homicide, shots at police and arrests of slaying suspects bring home the realization that Huntington Beach 'is no island' safe from violence.

By BILL BILLITER

Aug. 27, 1990 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

HUNTINGTON BEACH — On this Sunday afternoon in Bushard Park, a father pitches ball to his Little Leaguer son. Behind them, at the edge of the park, is a building on Education Lane that houses the Boys and Girls Club of Huntington Valley.

Like many residents in this neighborhood of well-kept homes that sell for $250,000 and up, he finds it hard to believe that two shootings occurred at the club Friday night. Suddenly, gangs seem to be a very real threat to his neighborhood.

“To put it mildly, I’m rather shocked,” says the father, who asks not to be identified. “This has always been a quiet neighborhood.”

On Friday night, a 17-year-old youth was shot to death at a birthday party at the Boys and Girls Club. About two hours later, another round of gunshots ensued when a car drove by the club and shot at police investigating the scene.

Mayor Pro Tem Peter M. Green on Sunday said the weekend violence on Education Lane may be part of a leap-frogging pattern of gang and drug activity in Huntington Beach. He noted that police see gangs moving from one area to another as crackdowns occur in various parts of the city.

“We’ll probably have to have more police substations (in the neighborhoods) if this keeps up,” Green said. “This city is no island. As gangs increase in other parts of Orange County, we’re going to be affected in our city also.”

Residents of the Education Lane area--a quiet, middle-class neighborhood anchored by Isojiro Oka Elementary school on the north and the Boys and Girls Club on the south--said Sunday that they fear gang-related activity has already moved into their vicinity.

A man walking his dog Sunday afternoon pointed to the grassy area behind the Boys and Girls Club. “Look at all the beer bottles there,” he said. “That’s where the gang has been gathering at night. We see them there at night all the time.”

The man’s son, a teen-ager, added: “Yes, there’s a gang operating around here. They call themselves the SKS. You can see their graffiti on the walls.”

The teen-ager said the SKS members lived in an area of condominiums called “the Continentals.” The two suspects arrested Friday night were captured in a carport at Argyle Drive and Kingswood Lane, within the Continentals condo complex.

Police on Sunday said they had no more arrests in the Friday night shootings and that the investigation was continuing.

On Friday night, a 17-year-old youth was shot to death while attending a birthday party inside the Boys and Girls Club. The youth, Canh Van Tran, of Orange, was shot in the back about 10:30 p.m. Friday.

Witnesses said that more than 100 teen-agers at the party fled outside after the shooting. The young people were met by shots from a fleeing Nissan 300Z car, witnesses said, adding that at least one person in the birthday party crowd fired shots back at the fleeing car.

About two hours later, another car, a Chevrolet, drove by the club and shots were fired at police as they were investigating the area. Aided by a police helicopter, police tracked the Chevrolet to the Continentals condominium complex and arrested Jose Munoz and Enrique Hernandez, both 20.

Police said they are not sure yet if the two shootings at the club are related. But officers said Tran’s slaying appears to be related to gang activity.

Police have said gangs are still not a major problem in Huntington Beach; before this weekend, the last drive-by shooting was in the Oak View area two years ago, but no injuries resulted. But although gang shootings are rare in the city, police have said they are worried about the mushrooming of gang activity in one area as soon as a crackdown occurs in another part of the city.

In a recent briefing to the City Council, Police Chief Ronald E. Lowenberg said that successful police attacks on drug sales and gangs in the old Commodore Circle area since 1985 prompted many drug sellers and gang members to move their activities from there.

Lowenberg said the Oak View area, bounded by Warner Avenue, Beach Boulevard, Slater Avenue and Gothard Street, then became the next hub of gang activity and drug sales. The City Council, at his urging earlier this summer, authorized a police substation in Oak View to fight the increase in crimes in that neighborhood.

But the criminal activity is now spreading to yet other neighborhoods, Lowenberg told the City Council at meeting last Monday. He said that drug sellers are now becoming a big problem in the Florida-Utica-Jay Circle area. Since February, police have arrested more than 40 suspects in that area on drug-related charges, including 13 during an Aug. 2 undercover “sting” operation. More than 100 drug arrests have been made in the Oak View area since February.

Mayor Pro Tem Green said the suspected gang violence in the Education Lane area this weekend may indicate that another part of the city is now being invaded as the police crackdown proceeds in Oak View.

On Sunday most residents interviewed in the Education Lane area said they were afraid to give their names--fearful of gang retaliation. “I hope they catch all these creeps, and catch them quickly,” said one 40-year-old father of four sons.

Another man, the father of one child “and another on the way,” said he could hardly believe that the area had been invaded by violence. “It’s a nice neighborhood,” he said. “It’s why I moved here.”

But less than half a block away, a teen-age youth on Sunday afternoon pointed to graffiti on a wall near the Boys and Girls Club. The graffiti was new, the youth said. The jagged markings read: GANG SKS.